TV take: In impressive quarterback dual, New Mexico’s Devon Dampier delivers dream-killing loss to Washington State

We were promised points. But an upset? That didn’t seem in the cards.

Play-by-play voice Dan Hellie assured us a lot of touchdowns were in the offing. And then he and analyst Petros Papadakis spent the next three-plus hours describing scoring plays. All from the studio in Los Angeles.

In the second half, those descriptions were mainly reserved for host New Mexico. A Lobos team that lost at home to a 2-8 Wyoming team earlier this month shut down John Mateer and the Cougars after halftime and handed Washington State a dream-killing 38-35 loss Saturday night.

“Well, we told you we were going to have offensive fireworks,” Hellie said. “But we did not tell you is that this game was going to come down to the final seconds.”

What they saw

• As Hellie and Papadakis informed us more than a handful of times, the Lobos hadn’t defeated a ranked team in more than two decades. Not since edging Utah when Urban Meyer was the Utes’ coach.

But Luke Drzewiecki’s 19-yard field goal with 4:40 left gave the Lobos (5-6) their first lead since the Cougars’ first drive of the game. UNM had overcome a deficit that reached 14 points, including at the half.

Mateer answered with a 37-yard touchdown pass, his third to Kyle Williams and fourth overall. But it came with more than 3 minutes left and that was enough time for Devon Dampier and New Mexico.

The quarterback’s legs were all the Lobos needed. He ran eight times for 33 yards on the drive. Eli Sanders matched that with one run. The WSU defense couldn’t hold and Dampier scored from the 1. The Lobos left just 21 seconds. It wasn’t enough for Mateer, whose final Hail Mary was knocked away.

• The upset was built on two legs. Dampier’s certainly, as he went over 1,000 yards rushing for the season with 193 on 28 carries. And the Lobos’ offense finished with 360 on the ground. The other leg?

“The New Mexico defense in the second half just played a different ballgame than they did in the first half,” Papadakis said.

• “One of the great surprises of the year has been John Mateer and Washington State,” Papadakis said in the first half as the Cougars moved up and down the turf with ease.

But that changed after halftime. Why?

According to Papadakis, the Lobos began dropping eight into coverage and rushing three. It made it harder for the Mateer and his receivers to find open space.

“What can Washington State do?” Papadakis asked after the Cougars finished off a scoreless third quarter. “They have been stifled” by New Mexico’s beat-up defense that barely got a stop before halftime.

Mateer, who hit his first 11 passes, finished 25 of 36 for 375 yards and four touchdowns. The offense gained 547 yards, only 190 in the second half.

What we saw

• Sometimes it doesn’t matter as much as how it is described.

Part of the fun of watching a game with Papadakis doing the analysis is trying to guess just what the former USC player – and Los Angeles radio host – will say next. Even if Fox is too cheap to send him to games in person.

Will he talk about food? Does mentioning spaghetti count?

“They throw a lot of spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks,” Papadakis said after a weird New Mexico play. “It’s kind of the nature of how (first-year head coach) Bronco Mendenhall is coaching this team this year.”

The tough nature of the game? He has that covered.

“Nothing out there hits harder than the ground,” he said, sounding to all the world as someone who knows, after a Lobos defender was shaken up on a tackle.

And why the Cougars have been so successful this season?

“(I’ve) been to Pullman, Washington,” Papadakis said. “That’s a place where you go up and walk onto the field and they lock the door behind you. And they don’t let you out until the game’s over. It’s a desolate place for a lot of people if you’ve never been before.

“And a very, very unique and awesome college football environment – but Martin Stadium is its own thing. When you get the Cougs out of Pullman, they’re a little bit different and they are a little bit different in that place. But that being said, they’ve found a way to get over the hump on the road against Fresno, against San Diego State, and that’s why they are in the position they are in right now.”

When Mateer finally missed a wide-open Kris Hutson after 11 consecutive completions, Hellie asked Papadakis, “How can he possible miss that?”

“It can’t all be wedding cake,” he said. Whatever that means.

• Don’t confuse Papadakis’ schtick with a stand-up comedy routine. At least not completely. He’s also excellent at breaking down the action, whether it’s on the offensive or defensive end.

Case in point, a 29-yard touchdown pass from Mateer to Kyle Williams with 70 seconds left in the first half, giving Washington State a 28-14 lead at intermission.

Viewing a replay, Papadakis pointed out how the safeties were “mugged up” worrying about a WSU running attack that had 88 yards. And that left the corners having to deal with Williams and his speed one-on-one on the outside. As Papadakis pointed out, they couldn’t. Williams had nine catches for 181 yards.

Williams was able to, as Papadakis described the deep stop-and-go route down the left side, “kill his motor and let the ball drop in because he had so much room, the sideline wasn’t close and he had such great position because of the beginning of the route. He was just running free.”